NOw that I've got it on the road I am much happier! The ride is better, but its painfully obvious that my leaf spring is shot. Completely flat with the car on the wheels. No people and less than a 1/2 tank of gas! Trying to decide now if I should leave it on worn until I've got more money since I want to put a big block in the car eventually or if I should replace it now and then again when I've got the big block. I know for sure that this week it won't be getting replaced! Leaving for NJ on Sunday and won't be back until May. College is fun but I do spend a lot of time away from the car! Bleeding the brakes today, so hopefully that will solve the soft pedal I've got. If not then it's time for a new master cylinder.

Scot
Loves this car!

Scot,
You should not have to replace your leaf spring a second time when you install a big block. The front coil springs are the ones you will need to replace when you put in a big block.

Interesting....could have sworn that the catalogs all listed different leafs for the bb and sb cars. No luck with the brakes. Still soft pedal. Car stops, but its not making me happy.

Scot

For what it's worth, I replace my rear spring after hearing a couple of horror stories from guys who've seen what happens to the rear quarters of C3's that have had the spring break.

Yes, definitely replace the rear leaf spring. If you don't and that thing breaks completely you are in a world of hurt. My uncle had one go and not only did it trash the rear end of the body underneath it also bent the trailing arms so bad that they had to be replaced. not to mention the rear end cover and the rear end cross member. What a mess. It was enough for me to not think twice about it. They do make a 9 leaf heavy duty spring that you can put on if you are concerned about future changes when you put in the BB. But, as was said earlier, the front springs and shocks are the ones that you will want to look at when you make the power plant change.
Good Luck!

Well, it'll be May before I see the car again, but it looks like that is first or second on the list!

Thanks for the info guys.

Scot
Sorry about getting off topic

Your welcome Scot, glad you are going to take care of it. I just finished puting my new leaf in tonight along with new rear shocks. I will be putting the new front coils and shocks on this weekend. Hoped to have it all done by now but, no such luck. Been so busy with work. Anyway, the weather around here has been pretty crappy lately.

Scot when you go to do the job make sure you spray those 4 main bolts well with PB Blaster or some other good penitrating fluid or you may take a chance of snapping one off in the rear end cover. Not a good thing to do. LOL

I dropped my exhaust from it's rear hangers as well to give me a bit more room to work.

Good luck!

Yeah, I had the existing leaf down to replace the differential seal last week, so I know I can do the job, and if the composite spring weighs 8LB...I should be able to get it in there substanitally more easily than the 40-50lb Steel spring. I'm a bit weak and actually had trouble moving the thing. Made me sad! LOL. I did devise a method to get the four bolts into the carrier to line up really really easy. I don't know how innovative it is, but since I clearly couldn't hold the leaf up AND line up bolts, what I did was to put the two bolts thru the plate and into the holes at the front of the car. The plate hangs at an angle and I simply slipped the leaf into place, lifted the plate and added the third and fourth bolts. Initially I had trouble lining things up because the bolt holding the steel leafs together was at an angle. Anyway, made it substantially easier to get the leaf in the air and line it up with all the bolts.

Scot

I recommend the composit spring. No sag, rides great, less weight, etc. I've had mine in for 19 years and, as you can see below, no signs of sagging. (Man, wish I could hold up that well! )